February Progress Reports
It's that time again - early progress reports.
Please keep in mind when receiving/viewing these reports that this is still early in the semester. Particularly in my senior (Gr 10 and 11 classes) we are still very much in a phase of reviewing previous year's knowledge, diagnostics, and introducing new information that will be used in later projects.
The information on the progress reports indicates a student's level of achievement BASED ON THE EVIDENCE OF LEARNING AVAILABLE at the time the report was drafted. It is not a final evaluation. It is simply information for parents and students to use in planning use of time and resources moving forward through the semester.
There are opportunities for students to complete work but there are timelines that teachers must meet for reporting.
It is, however, important to note that if a student is missing as assignment, it is their responsibility to make arrangements with the teacher to ensure that it is completed and submitted for evaluation in order that it stand as evidence of their learning. Students must understand that the longer they go before they catch up on missing work, the more they will find work piling up.
For more information about the Reporting Standards and what "evidence of learning" means, please see the Prezi slide show embedded below.
Please keep in mind when receiving/viewing these reports that this is still early in the semester. Particularly in my senior (Gr 10 and 11 classes) we are still very much in a phase of reviewing previous year's knowledge, diagnostics, and introducing new information that will be used in later projects.
The information on the progress reports indicates a student's level of achievement BASED ON THE EVIDENCE OF LEARNING AVAILABLE at the time the report was drafted. It is not a final evaluation. It is simply information for parents and students to use in planning use of time and resources moving forward through the semester.
There are opportunities for students to complete work but there are timelines that teachers must meet for reporting.
It is, however, important to note that if a student is missing as assignment, it is their responsibility to make arrangements with the teacher to ensure that it is completed and submitted for evaluation in order that it stand as evidence of their learning. Students must understand that the longer they go before they catch up on missing work, the more they will find work piling up.
For more information about the Reporting Standards and what "evidence of learning" means, please see the Prezi slide show embedded below.
Well, it's Progress Report not Report Card season, but we're still looking!
Important Note to Parents
At the end of the 2017/2018 academic year, you received a notice that reporting of student progress would be changing format beginning in the 2018/2019 academic year. The roll out process is now complete through all grade levels.
The new reporting protocol involves teachers sending out informal interim reports to parents half way through each term of the semester. As a result it is necessary that we have the most up-to-date and accurate parent contact information on file - including primary email address(es), home, work and cell phone numbers. IF you are at all uncertain whether or not the school has the most current contact information for you, please be sure to contact PCSS.
Teachers will be using the email addresses in the system to send out interim progress communication.
If it is not correct in our Student Information System, you may not receive progress information on your child.
Teachers will be using the email addresses in the system to send out interim progress communication.
If it is not correct in our Student Information System, you may not receive progress information on your child.
How do we measure and report on Student Learning?
Ms. Carrey uses "reporting standards". These are groupings of related curriculum content (knowledge/information) and competencies (skills).
Any given assignment falls into at least one of the reporting standard 'buckets', although parts may also fall into other 'buckets'.
Criteria for assignments (i.e. the items on a rubric) may be sub-categorized by theme or unit which then go into the reporting standard "buckets".
Ms. Carrey uses the same eight reporting standards for all levels of English because the BC English curriculum is designed to be a continuum, with skills and knowledge becoming more refined and detailed over the years.
Ms. Carrey's Reporting Standards (based on the B.C. Ministry of Education Curriculum Documents)
Any given assignment falls into at least one of the reporting standard 'buckets', although parts may also fall into other 'buckets'.
Criteria for assignments (i.e. the items on a rubric) may be sub-categorized by theme or unit which then go into the reporting standard "buckets".
Ms. Carrey uses the same eight reporting standards for all levels of English because the BC English curriculum is designed to be a continuum, with skills and knowledge becoming more refined and detailed over the years.
Ms. Carrey's Reporting Standards (based on the B.C. Ministry of Education Curriculum Documents)
- Indigenous Perspectives: Appreciating First Peoples/Indigenous perspectives on literature and Indigenous ways of knowing and doing.
- Text is social: Understanding of text (all formats and genres) is a way of socially created meaning-making and communication.
- Making connections: Making comparisons and finding commonalities between texts and one's self, one's community, and the world at large/the human condition, perspective taking and understanding that all text is created in a social context.
- Interacting with Text: Using a variety of strategies and techniques to interact with a range of formats, styles and genres of text.
- Information Savvy: Learning how to effectively search out quality sources of information (and identify false or questionable sources), select information for an intended purpose and audience, analyze, sort and synthesize information, paraphrase and use information in created texts with proper citation formatting, and without plagiarism.
- Oral Language: Listening attentively and courteously to gather information, storytelling, speaking and presenting in various formats, and using the voice as a precise tool of communication.
- Mindful, thoughtful and courteous sharing of ideas: Identifying purpose and audience and using that information to choose formats, genres, word choices, presentation/publication techniques, etc. in order to communicate effectively, engage in courteous dialogue, and identify logical fallacies.
- Using the entire writing process: practicing the process of planning, preparing, drafting, revising, editing, publishing/presenting, and reflecting on a piece of writing, independently and in collaboration with peers.
PCSS R Carrey Semester 2 Jan to June 2020
PCSS R Carrey Semester 2 Jan to June 2020
Below you will find embedded links to the documents from Yukon Education Curriculum Services for the achievement scales and how they relate numerical or letter grade evaluation measures.
Students in grade 8 and 9 are covered under the left-hand chart, and do NOT receive a percentage grade, either on progress reports or final report cards.
Students in grades 10, 11 and 12 are covered under the right-hand chart, and do not get a percentage grade on progress reports but DO get a percentage grade for their final report card.
Students in grade 8 and 9 are covered under the left-hand chart, and do NOT receive a percentage grade, either on progress reports or final report cards.
Students in grades 10, 11 and 12 are covered under the right-hand chart, and do not get a percentage grade on progress reports but DO get a percentage grade for their final report card.
Request to Resumbit / Reassess / Re-present
The document has several potential functions.
Standards-based grading, the format which the Yukon uses with the most current curriculum, as with previous curricula, requires that students be provided opportunities to succeed at the tasks they are set in the academic arena.
Some students/people have mistakenly misinterpreted this as meaning that "teacher's can't give zeroes".
I frequently point out to my students that I am a detective, not a mind reader. Although they may have the intellectual capacity to understand or to perform skills they have encountered in class, I cannot "see" into their brains to assess that - either formatively (assessment FOR learning) or summatively (assessment OF learning). I need the evidence they provide to me in the form of published learning tasks which may be oral, visual, textual etc., through observation of their work in progress and through conversations I have with the students and they have with each other.
Without the evidence on which to base an assessment, an educator is left flying blind.
The goal is not to punish students with "zeroes" for not submitting work which provides little data about whether or not a student understands the work. However, evidence/data must be available to assess. We as educators do, however (like many professionals) have deadlines that we must meet, and so having timelines for work submissions by students is reasonable both for managing the workload of several classes and in helping the students develop core competencies around personal accountability and time-management.
With the support of staff at Yukon Education Learning Support Services, and based on the work of Ken O'Connor (specifically his book How To Grade for Learning) I have developed a document that helps students to reflect on the challenges that have limited their achievement of their goals on a particular assignment, and allows staff and parents to support the students in re-setting goals to complete the work and achieve success.
The process is as follows:
Standards-based grading, the format which the Yukon uses with the most current curriculum, as with previous curricula, requires that students be provided opportunities to succeed at the tasks they are set in the academic arena.
Some students/people have mistakenly misinterpreted this as meaning that "teacher's can't give zeroes".
I frequently point out to my students that I am a detective, not a mind reader. Although they may have the intellectual capacity to understand or to perform skills they have encountered in class, I cannot "see" into their brains to assess that - either formatively (assessment FOR learning) or summatively (assessment OF learning). I need the evidence they provide to me in the form of published learning tasks which may be oral, visual, textual etc., through observation of their work in progress and through conversations I have with the students and they have with each other.
Without the evidence on which to base an assessment, an educator is left flying blind.
The goal is not to punish students with "zeroes" for not submitting work which provides little data about whether or not a student understands the work. However, evidence/data must be available to assess. We as educators do, however (like many professionals) have deadlines that we must meet, and so having timelines for work submissions by students is reasonable both for managing the workload of several classes and in helping the students develop core competencies around personal accountability and time-management.
With the support of staff at Yukon Education Learning Support Services, and based on the work of Ken O'Connor (specifically his book How To Grade for Learning) I have developed a document that helps students to reflect on the challenges that have limited their achievement of their goals on a particular assignment, and allows staff and parents to support the students in re-setting goals to complete the work and achieve success.
The process is as follows:
- A student EITHER has not submitted an assignment by the due date OR receives feedback on their work and would like to achieve a better result.
- The student completes the basic information at the top of the form.
- The student reflects on their current level of achievement: Incomplete, Not Yet Meeting Expectations, Approaching Expectations, or Meeting Expectations
- The student reflects on PRECISELY why and/or how they ended up with that level of achievement. NB: in order for this process to be effective, and in order for the request to be approved, the student must have given thoughtful consideration to this part of the form and be able to be sincere about what difficulties they faced, and what external factors and personal choices impacted the end result.
- Students choose a goal for themselves. The goal should be at least a passing level of achievement (Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding Expectations).
- A student who earned a "Meeting Expectations" may engage in this process if they want to improve their mark.
- Student will earn the higher assessment of any submissions they have made.
- One student asked if they had to take a a higher level of achievement. (i.e. if they got "Approaching Expectations" on one iteration and "Meeting Expecations" on another, could they CHOOSE a lower level of achievement.) I am not sure why a student would choose this, but I addressed this as a valid concern. I pointed out that to score a student lower than his best level of achievement would necessitate a discussion with parents/guardians (and possible the school administration) and another signed document of understanding that any such result was at the direction of the student and their parents, not at the professional recommendation of the educator.
- Using that reflection as a Guide, and specifically addressing those challenges, the student can choose from among some of the suggestions already on the sheet and/or they can make note of additional, specific, measurable things they will do to address those challenges.
- (i.e. Saying, "I didn't use my time well." and then saying, "I'll use my time well." aren't effective - they are too vague. Instead, a student could be specific about HOW they actually used their time: "I was distracted by gaming on my cell phone", or "I was chatting with friends", or "I thought I had more time" etc. Their plan could then be something specific like "On *Date*, *date* and *date* I will give my parents my phone between 7pm and 8pm and work on this project; I will show my parents what I already have done at 7pm and will show them what I have completed by 8pm in order to get the phone returned."
- The plan must be approved FIRST by the instructor, who will review it with the student and will work with the student to set an agreed upon absolute deadline.
- Students are advised to have information about work schedules, team practices/tournaments/games etc available for this discussion.
- Students THEN take this document home to review with their parents/guardians. Parents and guardians may make suggestions to the plan or re: absolute deadline but these need to be agreed upon with the teacher.
- Once all parties are clear on the expectations, and student, teacher and parents/guardians have signed, the student will use the request as a guideline to help them complete the work.
- Students will attach the completed request with signatures to the submitted work.
- Assessment results would be changed according to the level of achievement representing the student's best performance of the task.
| pcss_request_to_resubmit_form.pdf |